Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
This one puzzles me, though I have gotten it from several quite different sources:
Let’s show them what the power we can yield is.
Do you want to yield the knife and slay him yourself?
Without any adult supervision, the newly weds yield the knife [picture of newlyweds cutting the cake together]
Remember the magistrate does not yield the sword in vain (Romans 13:4).
My best guess is that it is simple malapropism: substitution of one imperfectly-known word for another similar one. In many contexts it results in opposite meaning: to yield the sword is automatically to cease to wield it. This adds to the puzzlement of it, but also moves it towards eggcornishness: the two meanings are not irrelevant to each other, which is a step towards making some sort of sense.
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I haven’t come across (including in a short google search just now) usages of wield meaning ‘yield’. They may well be out there.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2009-05-23 12:37:59)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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A probable wield << yield:
“I shall wield myself to the one who holds the phoenix…”. Ryo gets up and stares through the window as they reach the station when the train stops, ... www.fanfiction.net/s/1339389/1/Kiss_of_a_Phoenix – Páginas similares
A lot of other examples seem to be misspellings of “weldâ€, or random collocations from search-trap sites.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Still puzzling over this one. Recently saw a file with this repeated three times, which tends to indicate that it is standard for the author.
Might it be some sort of progression like yield (to s.o.)> give over (to s.o.) > give (to s.o.) > inflict (on s.o.)? / proffer (towards s.o.) > poke (towards s.o.) > brandish threateningly (towards s.o. people generally). ??
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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In the news today (AP):
Lasso-yielding officers chase loose bull in Texas Published March 19, 2014 Associated Press¶ A bull apparently in no mood for vaccinations led police on a chase down a Texas city street before horse-riding, lasso-yielding officers were able to wrangle the animal.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Yield can also mean produce, provide, generate, or deliver. The yield of a nuclear weapon is a measure of its force. These meanings make more sense in relation to the examples you cited in your initial post above, David.
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